Reflection on The Horse Dealer’s Daughter
Reflection on The Horse Dealer’s Daughter
A very significant sentence on page 928 reads, “She would follow her own way just the same. She would always hold the keys of her own situation.” I think that this means that she planned everything. She wasn’t going to let her brothers have the last word when it came to the rest of her life. Even if her way of controlling her own destiny is to end her own life, in her mind at least she is not letting anyone else make that decision for her. Following the pond incident she manipulates the doctor by encouraging his emotional confusion. She says, “You love me. I know you love me, I know.” The doctor is befuddled by this statement and with his own feelings of abandonment clings to her as she is clinging to him.
The opening paragraph is packed with images of humans portrayed with animal characteristics. This completely dehumanizes the brothers for the rest of the story. They are to be seen as barbaric men who victimize their sister. By portraying the brothers in this way I find it easier to believe that Mabel would have the skills to manipulate the Doctor at the end of the story. At the same time however one can also deduce from this situation why Mabel would want to end her life. Those who were supposed to be closest to her had never loved her and now even her shadow of a family was leaving.
The closing paragraph consists of the Doctor desperately professing his love for Mabel. The last line of the story, “ ‘No, I want you, I want you,’ was all he answered, blindly, with that terrible intonation which frightened her almost more than her horror lest he should not want her” shows me that her love for him is not really about him but moreover a search for honesty. The word ‘blindly’ suggests that he doesn’t really know what he is getting himself into. I think she is looking for and honest love and the idea that this might not be real terrifies her.